City Fop May Sue Over Promotions * Police Union Says Chief's Temporary Reassignments Are No Substitute For Policy.

July 12, 1996|by KIRK BELDON JACKSON, The Morning Call

The Allentown Police Department -- already entangled in lawsuits over promotions -- may face new legal troubles if Chief John Stefanik's plan to reassign officers includes more temporary promotions, the president of the union representing officers said yesterday.

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 10 will consult its attorneys on Monday if Stefanik's plan, to be announced today, includes temporary promotions, said union President Ed Zucal. Temporary promotions have occurred in the department.

The union and the city have been trying to negotiate a promotion policy, which is needed for promotions of sergeants and lieutenants.

Zucal said the union would consider temporary promotions as an attempt by Stefanik to "skate around" his obligation to write a plan.

"I'm viewing them (temporary promotions) as moves that could be avoided if there were a promotion system in place," Zucal said.

Zucal said the union would not fault any officer who received a temporary promotion.

"I blame it on the chief -- the chief and the mayor," he said.

Several lawsuits have been filed by officers against the city, some over promotions and others over back pay and benefits.

Although Stefanik would not say what reassignments he will make, he said they could include temporary promotions -- a lower-ranking officer taking a higher rank in an "acting" capacity. Stefanik acknowledged that the impasse over a promotion plan could keep officers in their acting capacities, where they will receive pay commensurate with their temporary position, for "a week or a year or six months or two years."

But he pointed to the union as the stumbling block, saying they had rejected plans he had sent them.

"You can't determine (how long acting positions will be held) until we settle something with the FOP in terms of promotional procedures," he said.

Mayor William Heydt made similar criticisms when he revealed a permanent promotion he is making, that of Sgt. Carl Held to captain. He was able to promote Held, who will take his new position tomorrow, because mayors are allowed to appoint captains, he said.

Heydt said he appointed Held because he needed another administrative officer and the impasse over promotions was preventing him from having one.

"I am trying to get some leadership for the police department, and I have to make that step because I can't get any cooperation from the FOP, the existing officers that are there," he said.

Heydt said the union had once rejected a promotion plan after initially accepting it. He said the rejection came as the city was taking steps to implement the plan.

But Zucal said the rejection came after Stefanik tried to change the plan after presenting it to union representatives.

Stefanik initially asked for an oral review board that would include an FBI agent, a state police lieutenant, a chief from an outlying department, himself and possibly an academy instructor, Zucal said.

But, he said, Stefanik apparently had not contacted the FBI before drafting the plan and the agency declined to get involved, prompting him to add someone else. Because the plan had been changed, the union was unable to vote on it, Zucal said.

"It was poor planning, is what it came down to," he said.

The union also had to reject the plan because it included a provision for a supervisor's evaluation, he said.

Such an evaluation could create the appearance of a conflict of interest in bureaus supervised by officers holding temporary promotions because candidates could end up being evaluated by people seeking the same promotion they are, he said.

Zucal said "nobody's technically at fault" for that provision because it was in the plan before Stefanik attempted to change it.

Asked why union negotiators allowed it to be included, he said: "Neither side caught it. We were trying to get a policy into place and it just bypassed us."